Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 53 (2021)
Ghosts in America: Working Towards Building a Legal Framework for
Stateless Individuals in the United States
approaches to statelessness has been geared towards declining to
permanently host stateless individuals. 219 This section will discuss three
main United States responses to statelessness: 1) “recalcitrant” country
designations and visa sanctions; 2) orders of supervision; and 3)
repatriation agreements. 220 Two of these policies, “recalcitrant” country
designations and repatriation agreements, compel countries to accept
stateless individuals removed from the United States. 221 Order of
supervision is the method by which stateless individuals are able to
remain in the United States but without legal status. 222
1)
“Recalcitrant” countries and visa sanctions
When Congress implemented the Immigration and Nationalization
Act (INA) in 1952, it gave broad authority to the DHS and the
Department of Justice (DOJ) to remove certain foreign nationals from
the United States. 223 One provision in the INA that contributes to this
broad authority is Section 243(d), which provides for the
“discontinuance” of visa issuances as a penalty for countries that refuse
to take back their “citizens, subjects, nationals, and residents” who
have been ordered deported from the United States. 224 In other words,
the United States can impose visa sanctions to try to compel
cooperation with its removal decisions. 225 Since the INA’s
implementation in 1952, the United States used Section 243(d) during
the Cold War to restrict visa issuances to certain Soviet bloc
nationals. 226 Between the Cold War and 2016, the provision was used
only once, against Guyana in 2001 to remove 113 criminally convicted
219. See Baluarte, supra note 20, at 352–53.
220. See Immigration: “Recalcitrant” Countries and the Use of Visa
Sanctions to Encourage Cooperation with Alien Removals, CONG.
RSCH. SERV. (Jan. 23, 2020),
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/IF11025.pdf [https://perma.cc/42RFQZU9 ] [hereinafter Recalcitrant] (defining “recalcitrant” as “countries
that systematically refuse or delay the repatriation of their citizens”).
221. Id.
222. Corgan, supra note 18.
223. Recalcitrant, supra note 220.
224. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 §243(d), 8 U.S.C. § 1253(d);
Discontinuance of Visa Issuance Under INA 243(d), NAFSA (Apr. 13,
2020), https://www.nafsa.org/professional-resources/browse-byinterest/discontinuance-visa-issuance-under-ina-243d
[https://perma.cc/9SMG-AEGU].
225. Recalcitrant, supra note 220.
226. Id.
381